Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-10-07

words:
The Democrats in Georgia want the rev.
enue laws wiped out. They want the tariff
then so modified that there will be no sur
plus, and every dollar that is levied for
revenue they want levied so as to protect
American labor where it completes withthe
serf labor of Europe. This is Democratic
doctrine, and can be understood by q way
faring man, though he be . fool.
Its position is that the Democratic party
shall stand by the platform Of 1884 that
gave the Democracy victory and the u
try CLEVELAND.
The Nashville AmeriedR earnestly sup
ports the demand ofthe Consolidation and Of
the Virginia State Convention that the in
ternal taxes be repealed. 1t elsboratesth III
injustice of the system to the South, that
it creates surplus, and further that the exc
cution Of the Law is oppressive and inquisi-
torial. This is something we of the North
know nothing about and accounts for the
hostility to the internal tax system in some
of the Southern States. The American says
on this point:
1t has had the effect to make more
enemies to the Federal government than
anything else done by the Republican
party. In its operation it is the most
tyrannical system of collecting taxes ever
adopted in q free government. 1t has
brought the Federal courts into contempt,
made the Judges feel like leaving the
bench, disguised spectators, annoyed and
made beggars of thousands of people
brought from great distances for small
o~ffenses. They have frequently remained
at the court for several weeks, making the
punishment in any event, whether acqult-
ted or convicted. altogether out OF proper
ton to the offense charged. The otfense Is
frequently for selling a box OF cigars, or a
pint of ~whisky-things that are not offenses
until made so by statute. The records at
Washington show that hundreds and
hundreds of people have been shot down by
these shotgun tax collectors, and IN hardly
an instance has anybody been punished
for it. Besides they destroy property.
cutting up distllleries and driving OIL STOCK
in palpable violation of half a dozen pro-
visions of our constitution, and yet up to
this time there seems to have been no rem
edy found to check it. The most alarm
ing thing growing out of this system, is
the adjudication of the Supreme Court,
where il has held that when one OF the
revenue officers or agents, or any man
who will swear that he was IN the employ
of the Government at the time, Is indicted
in the State Court for a crime, no matter
what, even If il be a cold blooded murder,
and he will swear that it was done in the
discharge of his duty as an officer, then
under the decision Of the Court the case IS
transferred from the State Court to the
Federal Court, which all experience shows
is an end to the prosecution.
And, recurring to the effect OF the inter
nal taxes on the tariff, the american says:
The only excuse for continuing this in
famous system that anybody has offered Is
that to take it of leaves too much duty on
imported gOOds-a duty that amounts to
protection. This is q new feature, espec-
ially for the Democratic party, the whole
theory of the Democratic party having al
Nays been, whatever may have been
thought of protection for protection sake,
that the manufacturer and laborer were
entitled TO the incidental protection
which duty on imported goods to support
the Government would give. Not one
of the Democrats Of the Ciden time
ever hesitated for one mOmentO on this qnes-
ton. All agreed that this Incidental pro-
lection the labOring people and manutac-
turers were entitled TO, the true theory
being, as we said before, that the Govern
ment should be supported by the duty on
imported goods. y r We admit that
the tariff must be reformed. There ought
to be q radical reform, but mainly III
equalizing and adjusting the tariff. 1t IS
not 30 much q reduction of the tarlf that
Is needed rs il is placing it; that Is, put
ting the duties where they will 10 the
most good in the way Of yielding revenue,
and bearing lightest on the people who
consume the neceSSaries OF life, collecting
the venue to support the Government
mainly from luXuTiCs.
Will any a man after reading these
declarations from the leading Democratic
papers of Georgia and Tennessee, and
knowing them to be backed up by the
Democratic press in Virginia and West Vir-
ginia and to d large extent in Louisiana,
| Alabama and North Carolina, will any sane
man, we repeat, be guilty OF uttering the
Republican ~demagOgue's cry that the
"Democratic party Is the party OF Free
Trade
Statesmen Of both parties recognize that
the tariff must be revised, that, as 1t now
stands, it is a rankinjustice TO every Amer
lean citizen, to the manufacturer and the
workingmau, "a well as to the farmer.
The manufacturer in numerous instances
IS ~uuequally protected, and the working
man and the farmer are compelled to pay
a big, almost a double, price for the neces-
saries of lite while the Injuries are allowed
to pour into the country practically I'M
taxed.
No party is a INIT on this subject,
though all see the wrong that must be
| righted, namely, the 800, 600, COD a year
that are needlessly wruDg from the peO-
| pie and piled up in the United States
| Treasury q constant menace to our pros
perity, an excuse for governmental eNtrava'
gaDce and a gigantic temptation to public
piunderers.
The Democratic party in West Virginia
believes and urges that the Democratic
majority in Congress should 10 away with
u Internal Revenue system and its army
of officers, a relic Of the war, and then
equalize and reform the tariff, protecting
American industry, manufacturing and
farming, and furthering American develop
ment wherever it is necessary, and taxing
the ~luxuries in preference to the neces-
saries of life.
DIED.
FISHER-On Thursday, October q. lssI, ~ l
| NrN1ypk ~ IN IAFnp ETSuER af his latp rpSlNphpa